The Gift
by narglesandbowties
Summary: Doctor/Rose AU, Human Nature, except Rose is replacing Nurse Redfern, it's set in medieval times, and Human!Doctor is unchaperoned. Let the madness begin! "You've given me so much, Doctor. You set me free. And now it's my turn to do the same".
1. Rose

_She stepped onto the platform, nearing the middle of the lake. He tried to stop her, tried to get past the force field that blocked his two hearts from entering further. _

"_Please, NO!" he shouted desperately. "There has to be some other way…please come back, I can fix it…"_

_She smiled at him despite the tears running down her cheeks. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, but she was confident._

"_You're the smartest being in the cosmos, and you know that's not true"._

_He had no answer to this besides the continuing "Please, Rose. __**Please**__"._

_Rose looked at him, her fluttering heart nearly breaking in two at the thought of leaving her Doctor, the man who had shown more than she ever imagined._

"_You've given me so much, Doctor. You set me free. And it's my turn to do the same for you"._

_She took her final step, took her final breath, and exhaled with "Goodbye, my love" on her lips._

"_NO" he shouted as she jumped into the crystal water, vanishing without a ripple._

_****_**CHAPTER 1: ROSE**

Lady Rose Marion Tyler of Powell Keep was not a proper lady by any means.

During tournaments, for instance, the ladies of the castle stared at the handsome knights in order to gain as many tokens as possible. Lady Rose watched to closely analyze each knight's technique, itching to try out their moves herself when she snuck out at twilight. As always, she practiced in secret when the rest of Powell Keep was sleeping. Her lady friends spend their days sewing and writing letters in Latin. Lady Rose daydreamed about heroic battles, dazzling heroines, and wild adventures.

What she lacked wit she made up for in personality. The knights and gentry adored Lady Rose for her compassion, beauty, and that cute thing she did with her tongue when she smiled. At the balls she never went partnerless, dancing until her feet nearly bled.

But the dances were too scares for her to remain entertained. She found her life quite monotonous and her mother, the wealthy widow Jacqueline Tyler, did nothing to assist her. The Lady Tyler, a notorious flirt, was constantly playing matchmaker and attempting to mould her daughter into a proper, domestic lady. Rose rebelled, plans fell through, except for one.

Hapless Squire Michael Smith, known to Rose affectionately as Mickey, had been a suitor as long as they both could remember. Rose considered him her closest friend, he considered her his future wife. Due to Jacqueline's meddling, he knew nothing of Rose's midnight training sessions.

Mickey strongly believed that when the time was right, Rose would acknowledge their "understood" betrothal, wed him, and make the perfect wife.

Lady Rose Tyler dreamt of exploring the world, fighting monsters, saving peasants, and running after adventures. Perhaps a man would ride alongside her, but he certainly would not save her from a tower like some damsel.

Those thoughts could never be voiced, of course. Women were pretty prizes. Still, she could dream. Maybe charm a knight down the road who would take his wife along on his travels. But never, ever would she settle down with a scholar.

At least, that's what she thought until she met John Smith.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: so sorry this is terribly AU, and terrible in general. In desperate need of a beta, tell me if you know someone/volunteer! The prologue is quite a teaser, hope you're in for a long and wild ride :) Review now, DO ITTTTT.**


	2. The End of the World

There were benefits to practicing at night. As it was in secret, Lady Rose always retained the sense of adventure, the rush of defying castle rules (Ladies must be inside the castle by midnight). Not to say that many ladies obeyed these rules, of course. They often snuck out to abandoned haylofts to meet the incredibly muscular stableboys, forbidden by their fathers but _oh, so good with their lips._

Lady Rose was good with her lips. At least that was what Duke James Stone told her when they were lovers. It hurt to think about. The boy, hardly a man and eager for glory, quickly replaced his Rose-centered love poems with war-hero ballads, and ran off to war. Surprisingly he made it a month on the battlefield before reality hit, that and an enemy arrow to the heart.

The mourning period greatly dampened Rose's opinions concerning battles and warfare, yet somehow left her dreams of adventure untouched. Surely there could be all of the adventure and none of the devastation, surely. Or was she dreaming too hard again? She bought a sword in secret, _in James' memory,_ she told herself, and began her training.

Many years ago she had walked in on Sir Bentley binding his breasts in secret, and in exchange for keeping the truth about "Shireen" quiet the Lady Knight offered her lessons in swordplay. The bond between the two girls grew almost unbreakable throughout their late nights in the meadow. But now Shireen was gone, called away to advise some foreign king on the ways of warfare.

While Rose missed hand-to-hand combat, she could still improve by herself. Shouldering her longsword, she snuck past the castle gates and into the forest.

She never made it to her meadow, however. As she neared her self-dubbed "secret spot" she heard a rustle and immediately drew her sword, frozen in place.

Whatever was making that rustle sure didn't seem to care who heard it, she thought through her paralysis. She braced herself for the worst as a tall, thin shape appeared before her, running as if it were the End of the World.

He was clad in the robes of an academic, but they appeared too large for his lanky body and his shoes poked out awkwardly from beneath them. Her eyes only spent moments on his shoes, however, as she was distracted by the frantic movements of his lips- _no, Rose, just his mouth- _that were trying to formulate words.

Finally, he spit them out while simultaneously grabbing her hand, a brief warning of "RUN" before dragged her along with him.

It only took a few moments to know what they were running from as he ducked behind a tree after running a few yards, and not a moment too soon. Rose barely managed to whip herself behind the tree along with him before a wild boar went charging down the path.

"Phew, that was a close one!" he exhaled, and as he did Lady Rose realized how close she was pressed up against him in her efforts to hide. She froze, transfixed and unable to find any words until she felt something hard press against her thigh.

"What the-" she gasped, startled out of her trance, and backed away quickly.

The stranger was quick to assuage her fears. "Don't worry, I'm not here to attack your maidenhood, though if you don't mind me saying you look almost like a man yourself in those pants…though then that would make me a gay man and we don't want the whole Keep thinking that…oh I'm rambling again, aren't I? So sorry. At any rate, it's a telescope, see?"

Rose blinked at him, slowly making sense of the situation, though his multi-tracked dialogue didn't help much. "So that's why you were in my meadow, then? To look at the stars?"

They began to walk back to the castle, all thoughts of stargazing and weapons practice gone after their encounter.

"Yes ma'am. I do love astrology. I'm a scholar, see the scarf?"

She did.

"I'm new to the Powell Keep but I'm hoping that in a few months' time they'll give me a title and promise to keep me around. That is, if the war doesn't hit first". He grimaced.

Rose looked up sharply at the news of war, as she always did. The man noticed.

"I reckon you're one of those children who can't wait to go off to war, aren't you?"

She indicated to the sword at her side. "Ah, yes. Of course. Do love a good war, myself. I only hope to finish mapping the constellations before I get to go fight".

This time it was Rose's turn to grimace. "You men are all the same" she sniffed. "There's nothing glorious about hacking people to pieces. Swords are for emergencies, not massacres".

The stranger looked at her, a new light in his eyes that she couldn't place. "Is someone threatening you then? Is that why you train in secret?"

"No", Rose responded, blushing. "I love the feel of swordplay. It's just…not proper". A thought suddenly occurred to her and she whirled to face him, brandishing her sword. "If you tell a soul…"

She expected shock, disgust, fear. Instead he chuckled. "Because that's just what I need, to tell the entire keep that I coincidentally ran into a woman in the night. Even if they believed me without spreading tales of promiscuity, who would hold the word of John Smith, scholar, to that of a great lady? Because that's what you are, isn't it?" his eyes trained themselves upon her and Rose quivered inside.

Scrambling to cover for her speechlessness- _damn, this has happened way too many times tonight-_ Lady Rose looked ahead of her and started. "We've reached the castle already!"

"Indeed we have, good subject change". Not to be deterred, he made sure they were out of sight and dropped to one knee, baffling Rose.

"Wha-" she started to say, and froze as John took her hand in his.

"Milady, I solemnly swear on my relatively meaningless life that I will keep your promise to my death". Never breaking eye contact, John Smith raised her hand to his lips, kissed it softly, and got up to walk away.

Once again, Lady Rose found herself frozen, speechless, and internally kicking herself. Luckily, he turned just before he reached the castle doors.

"I forgot to ask, what is your name, my secretive lady?"

She smiled softly and replied "Lady Rose Tyler".

He grinned childishly, like she had just given him a sweet. "Nice to meet you, Lady Rose Tyler". He turned and strolled into the castle.

Rose leaned up against the wall for a few moments more before following John Smith's footsteps inside. Her brain was spinning, and only one coherent thought was produced.

_How could a man, a __**scholar**__ for God's sake, be that attractive without eyebrows?_

**AUTHOR's NOTE**

**I know what you're thinking, WHY IS THAT ELEVEN. It will all make sense later, my dears. I intended to get so much more done during this chapter, but you can all see how that turned out. REVIEW FOR COOKIES. Also, do you see where I capitalized the End of the World, cause it's the next episode in the series? DO YOU?**


End file.
